This July, 2010, I had the wonderful opportunity of attending the first annual International Forum on Language Teaching (iFLT) in Los Alamitos, CA. I was both attending the workshops, forum, and lectures and assisting the directors, Diana Noonan and Jason Fritze. Therefore, I was privileged to experience not only the wonder of the conference as a student, but, also to get a glimpse into “the back office” and see the incredible amount of work, organization, passionate planning, and thoughtfulness that created and made the forum run so smoothly and be packed with so much value. I was certainly impressed by how the magic of the forum, which exceeded all of the attendees’ expectations, was orchestrated on the other side of the curtain.
I was blown away by the learning opportunities which Jason Fritze, Diana Noonan, and Project COACH (a group of dedicated California teachers who helped sponsor and orchestrate the forum), included in the week’s lineup. The workshops for all levels of teachers interested in Comprehensible Input-based world language instruction were plentiful. In fact, my only disappointment in the week of incredible presentations was that I could not attend every session when the schedule was divided into language-specific presentations or into different types of method reviews and practice, overlapping one another.
Filling each morning and afternoon were in-depth sessions, which included: peer teaching and coaching with Project COACH members, Total Physical Response (TPR) training with Berty Segal Cook, the combo of Comprehensible Input (CI) teaching skills and subject-specific material (i.e. art history or culture) with Spanish and French teachers, beginning or intermediate-advanced Comprehensible Input teaching skills in many languages: German, Spanish, French, and Mandarin, and Readers’ Theater with various experts: Jason Fritze, Carol Gaab, and Gayle Trager. Other sessions included how to write a comprehensible book with Karen Rowan, multi-level teaching with Meredith Richmond, or how to weave technology into the CI classroom with Noah Geisel. In addition to the set hours of the conference, I witnessed several groups of teachers peer-coaching and acting out stories late into the night, especially a group of French teachers who met each evening with Ben Slavic to pool their intellectual and creative resources. Wow!
Four language masters stand out in my memory of iFLT 2010 as a true gift in having seen them speak or teach, and it was a true honor to meet them. I had read much on The Natural Approach, Comprehensible Input, and the Monitor Hypothesis, but to hear Dr. Stephen Krashen speak in person on language acquisition and his theories was remarkable. I had also used Total Physical Response (TPR) in my Spanish classes, but to have the exuberant Berty Segal Cook speak on the necessity of TPR and lead the attendees through a TPR lesson, complete with jumping on chairs and dancing and touching our toes, was extraordinary and memorable. Thirdly, I attended a two day Comprehensible Input-based Mandarin class, taught by Linda Li during the pre-conference experiential training. Not only is she known by many to be one of the best language teachers, but she showed me how to skillfully, powerfully yet delicately, and passionately take a confusing and difficult language and make it not only comprehensible, but also, non-intimidating, usable, and memorable! The fourth teacher who exceeded his incredible reputation in my mind is Jason Fritze. I observed him dramatically and clearly teach advanced Spanish to a group of teachers in Denver two weeks before iFLT, and then I was lucky to see him explain and model, with contagious enthusiasm, the CI skills throughout the week in California.
I was honored that these four masters and the whole myriad of presenters so generously shared their gifts of knowledge from either their years of enthusiastic teaching and honing of skills or from their lifetime of study, experimentation, and refinement of theories and practices. Without a doubt, it was, for me, this combination of shared knowledge and styles which gave the attendees of iFLT 2010 such a rich experience.
In closing, I would like to share some of the anonymous comments that the directors received as part of the evaluation of iFLT 2010. I hope these comments give you an even broader sense of the congratulations and gratitude that is due to all who presented, taught, envisioned, and coached at this year’s iFLT.
–Laura Friesen
Here is what some of the participants said:
“Readers’ theater, personalization/PQA [Personalized Question and Answer] — These were the most reinforced strategies. One of the things I really liked about this conference was the consistent reinforcement of skills during the first couple of days. This was very helpful in seeing how the skills could be used, in what situations they could be used, and seeing them be played out in example scenarios. Truly, this is what made the iFLT conference stand out from all others I have attended.”
“I thought it was EXTRA COOL to have coaching open and available in the “plaza” outdoors… I saw a lot of people taking advantage of that – great idea!”
“This is something practical I can USE from now until I retire…then again, I may never want to retire from teaching once I start doing this!”
“I really loved the way Jason took a couple of elements, combined them with a major cultural event, brought the entire class into the “competition” [The World Cup] and made it so much fun to learn what seem to be a couple of basic structures. My interpretation of Readers’ Theater had always been something that was rather dry and I had not really seen its usefulness for the classroom until I saw Jason put it into action. I have a whole new take on Readers’ Theater now. Thank you!”
“I loved it…I love the long program–it’s like a camp and you can make lasting personal connections, which is much less likely with a shorter one. I think this conference was marvelous, inspiring and worthwhile to say the least. Please do another one next year! Thank you all for your hard work.”
“Karen’s Xtreme personalization was great!…Also, the multilevel class discussion with Meredith and Diana was excellent. All of us teach multilevel to some extent, whether our class is intended to be or not. It was a valuable discussion that I wanted to extend a little longer, too!”
“Everything was excellent! Gayle’s reader’s theater was so much fun! Donna and Gayle had so much experience and so many ideas to share…two wonderful master teachers.”
“This conference was like a spiritual retreat to me…I was so happy with this conference. We were not just learning about the [Comprehensible Input] approach, we were actually experiencing it and practicing it – we were acquiring it, just like our students are supposed to acquire the language…I was transformed by this conference. Many people, when they leave from a spiritual retreat, they say that they have been reborn. I feel that I have been reborn as a foreign language teacher. I just pray that I be able to bring to life all those structures and stories as well as the teachers who presented in the conference, that my students be able to acquire the language, and that they learn to love it.”
“I can’t begin to express how phenomenal it was. Thanks for all the work it took to put this conference together! I am so glad I got to be involved in it, and it has given me resources that I will no doubt be using for decades to come. Thanks!”
“Thank you so very much for all the work you did on this conference. Thanks to dedicated and hard-working people like you we WILL get CI based methods implemented in many more places. I look forward to the “Sea Change” Jason talked about. You are heroes.”
*This article was written by Laura Friesen, and later reprinted with permission in the International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching (iJFLT), August 2010.
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